For people in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease or memory loss, many activities of daily living become confusing, challenging or impossible. A key example is keeping track of time and calendar. Knowing the date or day of the week becomes difficult. Keeping track of activities scheduled for a specific day and time is overwhelming, if not impossible. Standard tools, such as clocks and calendars, may not provide sufficient information to eliminate confusion and provide the certainty needed. Even if the information provided via such a medium is understood, it may not be retained long enough for the person to act on it in a meaningful manner.
For a person with memory impairment, a standard calendar entry may not convey the information needed to result in appropriate action. Although the calendar may clearly indicate a haircut appointment on Wednesday, October 12 at 10:00 am, this may be meaningless information to a person who isn't sure if it is Wednesday, or even if it is October. Even if the person knows the day and time, that person may not be able to remember the appointment, even an hour later. Therefore, the recipient will be incapable of taking the appropriate steps to prepare for the appointment.
Although reminder calls from a third party can be helpful, such as when the Doctor's office calls the patient the day before to confirm the appointment, the call often does not provide the information in a timeframe that maximizes the chance of obtaining the desired result, especially from people with impaired memory. Also, information provided by telephone, or even by e-mail, can only be acted upon if it is, in fact, received. People with impaired abilities, such as memory, hearing or sight loss or who just are physically unable to operate an answering machine or computer, often can not see or hear their messages even when they are easily available.
Some systems exist in which messages can be sent to a receiving system and then played at a later time. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,442,573 describes a system that allows a sender to send one or more messages to a server. The recipient's system then calls the server at a preset time to retrieve the messages. Another system, described at page 22 of the December 2003 issue of Readers Digest describes a system that allows a sender to send messages to a recipients system. A light on the system indicates that the recipient has mail.
However, even when dementia has not taken its toll, some people can not reach or operate the telephone, or can not hear well enough to make telephone communication meaningful. Leaving messages for these folks is of little help, since many can not operate answering devices, read their email, or even be alert enough to remember to do so, assuming they possess the ability to operate the equipment.